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Only use the ones that represent the shape of the track. Recreate all the stickers with custom decals in approximately similar dimensions, all of them in the same color (white or silver). No text, nothing but track and cut-out in the middle, like the white one third from the left. Do you see where I'm going with this idea? For the ones that aren't in the shape of their track, you can create it custom.
Only use the ones that represent the shape of the track. Recreate all the stickers with custom decals in approximately similar dimensions, all of them in the same color (white or silver). No text, nothing but track and cut-out in the middle, like the white one third from the left. Do you see where I'm going with this idea? For the ones that aren't in the shape of their track, you can create it custom.
It's a project.
I knew you would be the first to comment. They all have the shape of the track on them if you look closely. I thought of doing something like you mentioned, but I would rather have the name with the track so if anyone looks at it they at least have a chance of understanding what it is instead of thinking I just like weird art on the back of my window.
I am seriously considering doing all black tracks so it is much more stealthy. Mainly because underneath the stickers on the ends are actual black track stickers from the Nurburgring and Hockenheim. However, the one thing that kept me from custom stickers is that every vinyl company I called had a $50-$75 set up fee for each track = not worth it. So I think I will keep them the way they are a bit longer to see if it bugs me at all. I think if I do go all black for the tracks I will not have nearly as many because a lot of them are only available from one distributor in one color. Decisions, decisions...
Well, I think for the time being I will keep the track stickers at the top of my rear window. I initially thought they were a bit too busy for my car which is otherwise kept looking pretty clean with mods and quite the sleeper. However, the stickers are quite small, I don't see the back of my car often, and my idea to make them all black was cancelled by the fact that most are not available in that color. I have had these on for a number of weeks now and no one at work has even noticed. I wonder if anyone will notice when I go to Road America again in a couple of weeks...
So finally time for some new car parts- not that many left to go though. I just ordered Bride seat rails for my passenger side. These are a special order from Japan and take about 2-3 months to get, but once I get them and test fit them I will order another Sparco R600 seat for the passenger side and lighten up the car a bit more.
So I am thinking about adding carbon fiber side splitters and maybe carbon fiber mirror caps from EZ Splitters. Has anyone worked with them before? I tried messaging and e-mailing them a few days ago, but still have yet to hear anything back. I am leaning toward the small winglet style side splitters below. I am torn on the mirror caps. I think they look cool on their own, but might make my white car look like a panda, which I want to avoid. I also have carbon wrap on my grille, front splitter, rear diffuser, window trim, and bottom of side skirts (hard to see). Thoughts?
Ironically, I was on EZ Splitters website yesterday and actually got through to them on their chat. I found out they are based out of LA and only one person responds to their e-mails and chats- so good luck getting a quick response. However, they were helpful and answered all of my questions. The universal carbon side splitters are only available in the big winglet. This is probably too drastic for the "sleeper" look of my car. But this also means that I could just get the aluminum small winglet side splitters that are black and only 1/4 the cost. I am leaning toward that, but still on the fence about the carbon mirror caps. I am afraid it may be a bit too much carbon and my car might start looking like a panda- not good. Any thoughts?
Do you lift the corners at the jack-points, or do you use the frame?
No OEM front flaps on your car?
Depending on what I am doing to the car I use the jack points and the frame. I usually try to use the frame up front to save the jack points (they are pretty flimsy), but in the rear you pretty much have to use the jack points. I think the only other option is the floor of the unibody.
I understand why you are asking about the jack points with the side splitters as I think they interfere with the jack points a bit. I think I could figure that out and cut out parts of the side splitters if I need to in order to access the jack points. I wonder if it would work if the side splitters covered the jack points entirely and I used them to jack the car up because they are flat and so is every jack pad in the world. (I always feel like trying to fit the square peg into the round hole when using a jack on the jack points.) Then again, aluminum is pretty soft so I am sure it would not be long before the side splitters started to deform. Maybe not.
I took off the front splash guards when I had the bottom of the side sills carbon wrapped and I tried to take off the rear too, but the dealership painted over the splash guards and the bumper at the same time so there was no clean way to separate them. It sounds weird, but looks fine with the paint and only one set of splash guards.
IIRC, you hockey puck around the jack points, don't you? I do that too, and I'm suspicious how that would work with an aluminum panel compromising the fit. Not sure you can cut around that effectively, and it feels like the aluminum will deform and bend if you put 1000 pounds on it.
And you're committing to having no front flaps, but maybe you're there already.
Anyway, the side pieces are inexpensive, and worth the experiment.
IIRC, you hockey puck around the jack points, don't you? I do that too, and I'm suspicious how that would work with an aluminum panel compromising the fit. Not sure you can cut around that effectively, and it feels like the aluminum will deform and bend if you put 1000 pounds on it.
And you're committing to having no front flaps, but maybe you're there already.
Anyway, the side pieces are inexpensive, and worth the experiment.
Yes, I use a slotted hockey puck type rubber pad which does help, but it is still not a perfect solution to the square peg/round hole conundrum of the flat jack pad and the straight edge jack point. As time consuming as it might be, I would not be afraid to remove a lot of material from the side splitters to be able to access the jack points. If the side splitters cover the jack points pretty thoroughly I would probably try that first since it will provide a much larger surface area for the jack pad to lift and hopefully distribute the weight a bit better.
The thing that worries me about these side splitters is that the EZ Splitter website recommends attaching them with only self tapping screws into your side skirts and 3M tape. I will have to take a close look at how well these would mount up and how heavy they are to figure out if they will mount very solidly or not.
I agree with you on the cheap experiment part. I am leaning toward that. Just not 100% on those carbon mirror caps yet.
I'm just going to sit back and see what you do here. If I didn't want to keep the front flaps, I might experiment too. Or maybe I might want to ditch the front flaps... I don't know, but I like the idea of having a rolled straight line in black aluminum at the underside of the side sills, but less wide than these splitters.
Anyway, looking forward to reading what you do. "tapping screws", err.
I just got rid of my front splash guards so that we could wrap the entire bottom of the side sill cleanly. (It would have looked really weird if we didn't) But I am glad I have them off now because they would get filled with/get caught on snow and detached a few times in the winter. I wanted to take the rears off for a uniform look, but couldn't without cracking paint. I think the car looks cleaner without any splash guards, but they do serve a purpose.
Well it looks like the side sill idea is done. The EZ Splitter person said that the side sills have to be flat for them to attach properly and thought they would work on our cars because a few sedan owners have ordered them. They must have had the non-sport side sills, because the side sills on my car taper down on both ends. Bummer, I thought that would look pretty cool, but I guess it wasn't meant to be. I was also a little uncertain about how they would attach. "Universal" parts for a car usually don't fit any cars very well.
However, I took a good long look at my mirror caps and I am starting to think that the carbon mirror caps might look nice after all. I think they would blend in pretty well since my windows are tinted and my trim is already carbon wrapped. If not for that they probably would look weird and stick out a lot more. I'll give it a few more days, but I am leaning towards doing it now.
In other news- I found out recently that the new Auto Armor Ceramic coating that I thought I put on earlier may not have been the ceramic coating after all. So this Saturday after work I washed my car and put on the new coating that we are sure is now ceramic. I also applied it to my wheels and headlights so we will see how it holds up.
It is really fast and easy to apply and it seems to work well. I did not even dry the car off- driving home on the highway did the trick so this stuff definitely repels water extremely well. The paint is super slippery and shiny now and hopefully this will help with hot orange rail dust spots from track days. It is difficult to see the difference in shine in the paint in a picture, but this also helps to see if the carbon mirror caps would look good here.
jsut my 0.02 but I'm not a fan of those flat side splitters on almsot any car... I feel like they create too sharp a line on a car that has msotly curved surfaces...
if you do go that route you may consider somthing like this if you wantto use the side jacking points:
If you're considering something unique for the profile of the car, here's an idea I've been thinking about forever... find a shop with airbrush skills, and enhance the shadow in the concave lower section of the doors.
05-24-2019, 03:38 PM
I knew you would be the first to comment. They all have the shape of the track on them if you look closely. I thought of doing something like you mentioned, but I would rather have the name with the track so if anyone looks at it they at least have a chance of understanding what it is instead of thinking I just like weird art on the back of my window.
